Off-road vehicles are commonly subjected to extreme conditions and terrain. Ground clearance, or the distance between the lowest component of the vehicle and the ground, is extremely important to off-road vehicle utility. The greater the ground clearance of a vehicle, the larger the obstacles that the vehicle is capable of traversing without contacting the underside of the vehicle. Typically, the lowest vehicle component is the driven axles' differential housing that encompasses the vehicle differential that translates the longitudinal rotation of the driveshaft to the lateral rotation of the vehicle axle shafts. A conventional vehicle drivetrain configuration includes a differential housing having axle shafts extending horizontally and collinearly outwards from the differential housing to the vehicle wheels. Because a traditional differential housing protrudes below the axle shafts, it is the lowest drivetrain component and can be first to contact ground obstacles, rendering the differential highly susceptible to impeded forward motion and/or damage.
Typically, to increase the ground clearance of an off-road vehicle, the vehicle may be fitted with tires having a larger radius than an on-road tire. The larger radius translates into raising the vehicle and corresponding drivetrain components by an amount equal to the radius increase of the tire. However, the larger the tire, the greater the power requirement to turn it, which translates into a greater engine capacity. The amount of shear forces exerted against the drivetrain components also increases with the increase in tire radius. Ultimately, the size of the tire is limited by the strength of the wheel hub and axle. Typically, the stronger the axles, the greater the weight and cost of the axle assembly.
Another typical solution to increasing the ground clearance of a vehicle is to utilize a portal axle. Portal axles add housings at the outside ends of the axles that have a vertical component hanging down from the conventional axle. Typically, this component contains reduction gears and corresponding stub axles such that the axle rotation is transferred to the lower stub axles to drive the wheels. However, portal axles are significantly heavier and weaker than traditional axle configurations due to the gearing and stub axle tangential forces.
With respect to these considerations and others, the disclosure made herein is presented.